How Digital Transformation Drives Business Value

A recent McKinsey report# highlights how digital can shape every aspect of the enterprise. From the report:

Technology drives value in businesses in four ways: enhanced connectivity, automation of manual tasks, improved decision making, and product or service innovation (exhibit).

Tools such as big-data analytics, apps, workflow systems, and cloud platforms—all of which enable this value—are too often applied selectively by businesses in narrow pockets of their organization, particularly in sales and marketing.

The operational benefits of business intelligence gathered through digital (and social) are often overlooked by organizations. Company silos are one of the main reasons for the disconnect.

A connected experience from the web to the store through mobile is another aspect that takes second seat to the more visible presence in social for promotions and awareness. This is a symptom of legacy technology with patched together or wrapped front end applications that are not functioning optimally. Why you can order something online and may not be able to pick it up in store, or vice versa, return in store when ordering online in retail.

Each industry and company within it needs to evaluate the opportunities by first understanding what is going on that matters, then estimating what change is needed to proceed to prioritize the efforts based on a value creation scale.

One of the stumbling blocks in addition to budgets is lack of internal resources.

The best digital professionals (and candidates) with the most experience tend to have a more varied industry profile. They are mostly self-taught, and passionate about the work and the tools. Ironically, what makes them good at what they do, often makes them a poor fit for corporate careers -- and hides them in plain sight from recruiters who are still grappling with understanding how to vet experience in digital (and by and large social, too, given the plethora of like-sounding profiles).

Many organizations are also still structured based on vertical competencies, while digital and social are horizontal domains that impact all areas of a business -- from product to service, pricing models, operational workflows, etc. Along with the gap in recognizing and engaging with experienced talent creates a double whammy affecting problem solving, communication, and customer relationships.

So far, the advantage is going to new entrants, because native to digital.

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Valeria is an experienced listener. She designs service and product experiences to help businesses rediscover the value of promises and its effects on relationships and culture. She is also frequent speaker at conferences and companies on a variety of topics. Book her to speak here.